Lemma Soft Forums

Hey All,

I’m writing a VN where the main character is also the narrator and the story is being told from their point of view. What I was wondering was how other VNs handle this? I know Utawarerumono never has the MC as a sprite or asset and they only appear in certain CG scenes. I was curious if this is the conventional way to handle this sort of narrative? I know there are probably many different ways these types of VNs do thing but just going for in “general.”

Yes, plenty of VNs don't have a sprite at all for the main character if they're telling the story in first-person. (Especially not if they're written to be a player-insert character, in which case they might not even fully appear in CGs.) Some might have a small portrait at the side of the textbox to show some of their facial expressions, but not a full sprite. However, I have seen some that use a sprite for the main character as well, and I personally tend to enjoy that because more cool sprite art to look at is always nice! So I think it really depends on what feels right for your project.

Thanks! I do like the idea of having a sprite for the MC so maybe I will go that route.

To add a bit of my two cents, I've also seen some VNs that are mainly told from the Main Character's perspective, but at some point change POV to another character, who then sees the MC, thus they appear as a sprite. It's not that unconventional, just not so widely used.

It can go either way. Most of the time in a first person perspective you won't see the narrator as a sprite, because the view is from their eyes. Sometimes they will show up in CGs though if you like. The main argument I have for this style is a practical one. The MC will have a large amount of dialog, sometimes as much as 50% of words will be spoken by MC. By having them unsprited/unvoiced you cut down significantly on scripting and voice acting needed, possibly saving hundreds of hours and money.

They can also show up as a "side" image on the textbox when they speak, so you can see their expressions, but not a full sprite character. This is cheaper and looks very nice.

For games that have a more 3rd person narration style I've seen the MCs show up as sprites and it can work quite well! It does mean you have to script them but you pretty much just treat them like any other character.

In general, it's normal to not have sprites for MC except maybe for CGs. This is even more true if the developer wants the player to self-insert themselves into the MC's role. Romance VNs with relatable MC in general does this.

But, in different situations, MC with sprites are generally used too. Especially in hybrid VNs with gameplay elements. Heaven Burns Red, for example, does this really well.

In short, it depends on the developer's goal. If immersion or player-insert is the goal, MC sprite in commonly not used.

If it has gameplay, MC with sprite is common.